Introduction: This will be an overall guide to the semester, getting you oriented to the craft of feature (i.e., magazine writing) and the organization of the course.

Learning objectives:

• Getting oriented to reporting
• Comfort using WordPress and Dropbox Paper
• First steps learning about beats

Steps to completion:

Background:

• Review syllabus, schedule, course website
• Finish the class survey if you haven’t already by August 15.
• Day 1 assignment
• In class on August 16, you received a slip of paper with a question on it. In class on August 18, ask each of your classmates that question. Then, using the posts with their names on them, contribute to a profile. Profiles should be logically coherent and factual; you’ll just have to build them in concert with all of your classmates. For an example, I asked myself all these questions and built this interview with the answers:

It’ll be a little chaotic, but it should be fun. Let me know if you have any problems. You should be able to get the profiles finished by the end of class, but certainly by August 19. (My final product is under Suggs’ notes.)

Reflective:

• Class discussion August 11: Day 1
• Class discussion August 16: Review syllabus; introduction to beats and stories; day 1
• Class discussion August 18: Classmate profiles

Exploratory

• Write a blog post describing what you know about your beat, what your experiences (if any) with it are, and what sorts of things you find interesting about it. Post in your beat page by using the appropriate category and the tag “where I’m at” by August 24th.